Ron Howard

The first studio film Ron Howard directed was Night Shift, which was also the first thing Brian Grazer produced and the first the two of them did together. He took the screenplay to Henry Winkler, his old fellow actor from Happy Days, on Paramount's lot during Winkler's lunch break. For the part of Bill Blazejowski he tested forty out of two hundred possible actors, and eight of them read a scene with Winkler. He gave Winkler the choice of the two leads, and Winkler picked Chuck Lumley. Howard turns up twice in the film uncredited: the man playing the saxophone in the subway, and the man kissing a girl outside Chuck's flat. The Daily Variety of 24 November 1981 had written that his company, Major H Productions, was in pre-production.